Presenter: Angie Tayel, Psychology, Global Public Health Scholars
I did my research in the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, in a low-middle income city interviewing Egyptian citizens on their perception, knowledge, impact of covid-19. I chose this project as I was planning to be in egypt over the summer during one of their peaks, and I thought it would be interesting to spend the summer interviewing and observing covid-related practices. I feel this is important to public health as Egypt’s cases have steadily remained high and it’s important to understand the things that may cause this such as lack of knowledge and access, so that we may address these things. Personally, with egypt being my native country there was a big personal connection, however, this project allowed me to view the reality of my country. For example, based off the responses I received, it seems as though cultural and religious practices reign all, even if they do not align with COVID guidelines. Furthermore, barriers make it hard to keep up with covid related health. For example, many citizens told me that COVID tests are about 1200 Egyptian pounds per test, leaving many people hesitant to ever get tested. All in all, this population of Egypt’s government, culture, traditional and religious practices, and barriers to access and knowledge make it difficult for citizens to keep up with their health practices, likely resulting in the high number of COVID cases in Egypt.